Why Texas Hates Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)

It’s not as if we really needed another reason to loathe career politicians, but here’s one I just couldn’t let slide.

Check out this small segment from an Autoblog piece about Tesla and the state of Texas …

A Texas House deadline has come and gone, killing many top-priority bills for both parties — among them one that would allow Tesla-backed direct car sales and another to regulate ride-hailing companies. Midnight Thursday was the last chance for House bills to win initial, full-chamber approval. Since any proposal can be tacked onto other bills as amendments, no measure is completely dead until the legislative session ends June 1. But even with such resurrections, actually becoming state law now gets far tougher.

Among the casualties of bills that didn't make the first round of cuts was House Bill 1653, which would permit electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors to sell cars in Texas at up to 12 locations. Identical measures by a House Democrat and a Senate Republican both got stuck in committee after facing strong opposition by car dealers. Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson — one of the House's most senior members currently serving her 20th term — said it was the company's own fault that the bill didn't pass.

"I can appreciate Tesla wanting to sell cars, but I think it would have been wiser if Mr. Tesla had sat down with the car dealers first," she said. It is possible to own a Tesla in Texas, but it's not easy to do.

Can you believe the stones on Rep. Thompson?!

It was the company's fault the bill didn’t pass because Tesla should have sat down with the car dealers first?

Why do we even need legislation to allow a company to sell a product?

What Tesla is selling isn't illegal.

The company isn't selling heroin or taking part in the human slave trade.

There are two reasons Tesla can't sell directly to customers in Texas …

1. Most politicians in Texas (as well as every other state in the nation), are well-funded by car dealerships. Campaigns don't fund themselves!
2. In Texas, there still seems to be a fair amount of discrimination against electric cars. After all, Texas is oil country. They don't want those pesky treehuggers with their clean electric vehicles showing off their ability to live a full and happy life without the crutch of an outdated internal combustion vehicle.

Interestingly, this news also coincides with news that on Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbot signed a bill that prohibits cities and towns from banning fracking, thereby giving the state all the power over all oil and gas regulation. I guess individual cities and towns can suck it.

Although I believe in property rights and the right of individuals to use their property as they see fit – as long as it doesn't harm anyone else or neighboring properties (without compensation, anyway), Texas continues to prove that it's a great place to set up shop if you enjoy the illusion of liberty.

Guys like Rick Perry and Greg Abbot always talk a good game about free markets, personal sovereignty, and the cause for liberty. But when it comes down to it, they're no more interested in this stuff than Kim Jong-un.